Pete Alonso begged his manager to let him face Dakota Hudson, then took him yard

New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway was on his way to dinner with his parents on Saturday night when his rookie slugger Pete Alonso started blowing up his phone with calls and texts.

The hard-hitting first baseman had taken a pitch to the hand from St. Louis’ Mike Mikolas earlier in the day and underwent x-rays. Callaway feared the worst when his phone started buzzing. But the x-rays, it turned out, were negative. And Alonso wasn’t calling to talk about taking any games off. Instead, he begged his manager to put him in the lineup on Sunday. One of his college rivals was taking the mound, you see. Alonso wanted a piece of him in the bigs.

The skipper obliged, putting Alonso in the No. 2 spot in the lineup. Alonso made his manager look like a genius in his first at-bat by taking a 1-0, 88.5 MPH slider and launching one of hardest home runs we’ve seen this season.